The Problem of the Scoliae 



animal, the better to conceal Itself, assumed 

 the colour of its environment. The rays of 

 the sun produced the tawny yellow of the 

 coat; the stripes of shadow added the black 

 bars. 



And there you have it. Any one who re- 

 fuses to accept the explanation must be very 

 hard to please. I am one of these difficult 

 persons. If it were a dinner-table jest, made 

 over the walnuts and the wine, I would will- 

 ingly sing ditto; but alas and alack, it is 

 uttered without a smile, in a solemn and 

 magisterial manner, as the last word in sci- 

 ence I Toussenel,^ in his day, asked the 

 naturalists an insidious question. Why, he 

 enquired, have Ducks a little curly feather 

 on the rump? No one, so far as I know, 

 had an answer for the teasing cross-exam- 

 iner: evolution had not been invented then. 

 In our time the reason why would be forth- 

 coming in a moment, as lucid and as well- 

 founded as the reason why of the tiger's coat. 



Enough of childish nonsense. The Ce- 

 tonia-grub walks on its back because it has 

 always done so. The environment does not 

 make the animal; it is the animal that is 



1 Alphonse Toussenel (1803-1885), the author of a 

 number of learned and curious works on ornithology. — 

 Translator's Note. 



125 



